Stephen A. Smith appeared to be caught off guard when Alex Ohanian confronted him over his comments about his wife, Serena Williams, during last Thursday’s episode of First Take.
Those who thought the ESPN star would remain silent on the matter, however, don’t know Smith, who issued a response during an ensuing episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show.
The entire ordeal stems from comments Smith originally made following Williams’ appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year. In particular, the First Take star criticized the tennis legend for dancing during Lamar’s performance of his Drake diss track, “They Not Like Us,” noting that she had previously been romantically linked to Drake and that if it was his wife “trolling her ex,” he would have told her to “go back to his ass.”
Unsurprisingly, Smith’s comments didn’t sit well with Ohanian, who made an unrelated promotional appearance on First Take eight months after they occurred. Before his segment came to an end last Thursday, the Reddit founder made sure to reference the criticism, while also calling attention to the fact that Smith has never been married.
“You hadn’t been married before, right?” Ohanian said. “Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies. So, I generally try to stay in my lane in the advice department.”
“You hadn’t been married before, right? Cause I give advice to plenty of founders who want to build billion-dollar companies. And the reason I do that is because I build billion-dollar companies.” – Alexis Ohanian just checked Stephen A. Smith https://t.co/YghAXHoMrR pic.twitter.com/lks6l9zPEI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 9, 2025
The callback nearly left Smith at a loss for words, as he awkwardly retorted by blaming “headlines” for his previous comments taking on a life of their own. That wasn’t the case, however, on his eponymous radio show, where he recapped the situation before insisting he had “no issue” with Ohanian wanting to address the situation.
“I wasn’t going to get into it on national television, I’m a professional,” Smith said. “Now, if it had escalated and he wanted to get into it more, we would have kept the cameras rolling and I would’ve said, ‘fine.’ But he was sitting there saying, ‘You wasn’t married, right? So, you know, you giving marital advice?’ that’s how he framed it. He says, ‘I give advice about building companies because what I do,’ essentially implying that I’m not married so who am I to say something like that?… I think that’s a fair comment on his part. I don’t have to agree with it. But I took no offense to it.”
Smith — who appeared remotely during the First Take episode due to a prior speaking engagement — also added that he would have welcomed the opportunity to have the conversation in-person and that he would have stood by his initial comments. He did, however, admit that he would have made his case “in a more respectable manner” than what he said following the Super Bowl, when he said he was “just having fun.”
“I respect him. That’s her husband. That’s his wife,” Smith said of Ohanian. “And evidently, he didn’t like what I said. I respect it.”
All things considered, Smith’s response was a mature one. Still, that doesn’t make the visual of him stammering on his own television show as a guest threw his previous comments back in his face any less memorable.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.